Prologue Letter: Virtue Hoarders: Liu's Case against the Professional Managerial Class
Catherine Liu's David v. Empires: The Ascension of the Professional Managerial Class and the Dialectics of Modern Inequality
Professional Managerial Class: The Super-Wage and Working-Poor
The key characteristic of a benefactor of the Professional Managerial Class is the ability to earn a super-wage, which is many times the managerial salary of the post-war reconstruction and Great Society era. The stagnation of the American working wage was theoretically justified by the completion of industrialization in the United States, suggesting that the age of radical growth is gone, complete, and over on the American continent, and that any future wage growth will be limited by inflation and a technology explosion. However, the explosion of super-wages earned by the Professional Managerial Class (PMC) is justified by investments in “foreign developing markets” in this neo-Keynesian-neoliberal theory. It posits that the PMC are, in actuality, foreign rulers residing on American soil, namely in Wall Street, Miami (or Vancouver), and their wealth is derived from carefully investing in emerging markets such as Nigeria, Indonesia, or India. The rapid expansions of the Super-Wage are correlated with the rapid 5%-7% GDP growth in foreign markets, promoting the new myth that any American can work hard and invest in those exotic stocks. However, accompanying the Super-Wage is not cooperation economy from blue-collar American investors (or a parallel unionist stock market), but the “Working-Poor,” the undeveloped twin of the Super-Wage from the womb.
The Working-Poor is a special phenomenon in America, where hard-working people can become impoverished enough to become energy and healthcare endangered. In other countries, food and housing would either be expensive but come with a high salary, or, in developing nations, with inexpensive basic goods. Neo-Keynesian-neoliberal economists justify this by presenting a new history lesson. They argue that the roaring Reagan era was the fruit of neoliberal global expansion and that the American Free Trade System brought formerly third-world nations into the American economy. Formerly protective and Import Substitution Industrialization nations adopted neoliberal ideology and opened up their markets to trade and acquisition by American capitals. In the following years, Bangladesh, China, Indonesia, Taiwan, South Korea, and Vietnam slowly opened up to American investment and demand, resulting in a technology explosion in those nations. Stagnation was resolved by exporting “unemployment” to the “Asian Tigers,” allowing factories to be turned on and off at the whim of importers like Walmart without fearing domestic confrontation. If the American economy was in an expansion phase, the importer megacorporation could import more, but when Americans have credit problems, they can always import less. If contractionary policies were to happen in America, many people would suffer unemployment when the production order is cut in half, but nobody cares about foreign nations such as communist Vietnam or China. This means that prices are decoupled from inflation and money supply in the U.S., and the supply is perfectly elastic to demand. This also means that the super-wage earners in America can justify their wages and detach themselves from the working-poor. Their super-wages are justified because they are derivatives of the super-profits earned by mega-corporations and chief importers, and they did not directly cut the wages or positions of gig workers in the service economy. The professional managerial class would tell you that even if you tax them 100%, the working-poor will not gain fair housing or good healthcare.
The detachment from the stock market index and average wage tells a similar story: that economic developments contribute the most to stock prices, at least according to neo-Keynesian-neoliberal economists. As more nations industrialize and are adopted into the American market, the indices grow. Despite popular accusations, the headlines tell a different story. Hedge fund tycoons argue that they are merely facilitators of global trade, and their investments have brought lifesaving technologies and equipment to underdeveloped nations. The butlers of Wall Street have saved billions from poverty in the third world and formerly Soviet nations. Americans should be happy and satisfied that such life-saving operations take place on American soil and that the facilitation of such transactions alone could bring employment and good-paying (managerial) jobs to America. Such transactions could take place anywhere, and if Americans are unwilling to host them, they can move to Toronto or London. It was only after China reached a similar level of industrial output between 2013 and 2015 that America was no longer the largest industrial nation in the global market. The “working-poor” had been an American staple longer than that, trailblazing Clinton’s trade deals. After that, economists have seen the working-poor become widespread in post-colonial Africa and the migration of super-wage earners from South Korea (Tigers) to America. There are global patterns of an expansionary wealth gap, and, extremely intriguingly, virtue signaling by online personalities in developing nations similar to American PMC members.
Edward S. Herman, a prominent critic of media and economics, highlighted the issues of media manipulation and the control of public opinion in his works. He famously said,
"The media serve the interests of state and corporate power, which are closely interlinked, framing their reporting and analysis in a manner supportive of established privilege and limiting debate and discussion accordingly."
This ties into how the neo-Keynesian-neoliberal theories and talking points are manufactured consents by the Professional Managerial Class to justify the super-wage and condemn the “working-poor.” To an extreme, the PMC will invent demoralizing myths and stories to justify their mandate and the inhumanity of the “working-poor.” More in-depth analysis can be found in "Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class" by Catherine Liu.
It is a privilege to financially invest and share the profits in a foreign country, and these privileges are bought by the equal rights to rent and acquire capitals from developed nations. Otherwise, the globalization of the financial market is not mutually beneficial, but another round of colonization. Even Hayek would argue Americans can buy water companies in Vietnam, but in reciprocal customs, Hong Kong should be able to buy Boeing jets. Herman's perspective reinforces this view, as he stated,
"The rise of the Professional Managerial Class is a classic case of the rise of a new ruling elite, which uses its control over media and academia to perpetuate its power and privilege."
This highlights the systemic issues within global financial markets and the role of media and academia in shaping public perception and policy.
Below are the Old Contents
The Making of American Cultural Hegemony
The key turning point for cultural leaders was the post-war Marxist critique movement, when the West gained a firm understanding of Marxism and an improved version of capitalism finally took shape in the 1970s. American capitalists also advanced more than ever, transitioning from the age of Titanic, where capitalist barons of the East Coast sought inter-caste marriages with European blue-blood aristocracies, to the era of European films dominating the American market.
Just like the clergy who walked among feudal lords, high lords of the Holy Roman Empire were accompanied by lowborn priests. The Professional Managerial Class (PMC) are the new millennium priests for the feudal lords, the Helena of Europe for Boston bankers, and exotic film stars for American consumers. Clergies serving high lords of the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) were spiritual leaders second, politicians first, and the Lord’s humble shepherds behind bureaucrats last. Nobody cares about the doctoral dissertations of those in the professional managerial class, although these dissertations, like those for the famous White House, are often laughing stocks among researchers, as Catherine Liu frequently shares with her students. The value of these dissertations is akin to a clergy declaring the Lord of Essex sin-free and a worthy ruler. The PMC can use the academic myth, derived from Übermensch Newton, to consecrate the mayor of Lower Essex with superhuman intelligence and endurance, thus deeming them a worthy ruler. The academic myth, in reality, amalgamates multiple people’s achievements into one mythic holy scientist who received revelation, blessed by God’s providence, making them superhuman. These super scientists can achieve academic discovery and invention in multiple areas of expertise, just like nobilities are made by God to rule and wise men are made by God to guide a nation, a kingdom, and a monarch to greatness. They are the walking good omen from God, a blessing sent by God to the current ruler. Their expertise can sway elections by declaring that their field of expertise supports a candidate’s policy, elevating the nation and ending the suffering of mortals. They are the Aristotles erecting Alexanders, the Hegels of today, certifying world-historical saints. They are the Three Magi, this time certifying Hong Xiuquan's election — elected by the Chinese to be Jesus’ brother. John Kenneth Galbraith discussed how the PMC are here to stay, either to be a philosopher-king or to elect one from the “old world dialect.” The author here begs the question, giving Professor Liu the chance and the power of a kingmaker, would she ascend to be the Magi or be the crown smasher of 1848? After 1848, there were no holy kings nor sacred crowns, only dictators jealously guarding their palaces or figureheads. That would be an appropriate time to read her latest book, "Virtue Hoarders: The Case Against the Professional Managerial Class." Please consider purchasing one for yourself. I can only help by providing a link below.
The PMC were also responsible for the destruction of America's production capacity. Mass layoffs for short-term stock price gains permanently destroyed domestic demand in America. In the long run, less demand results in more layoffs and factory shutdowns. The crown jewel of industrial productions and peak manufacturing relies on a market at least the size of half a billion people. The most obvious results are the destruction of American shipbuilding, including rocket manufacture. The renewed space race, after NASA's China ban and the perpetual Artemis delay, showed a clear result of professional managing: American manufacturing is dead, and no smart people are entering underpaid manufacturing. They will find better opportunities in emerging industrialized nations as high-tech engineers than in American factories controlled by professional managers. Another crown jewel of manufacturing capacity, the Titanics of the Seven Seas, luxury cruise ships, is long dead in America. The latest scandals in the civil aviation industry – colloquially known as large planes in airports (contrasting with small private planes and agri dusters) – were another failure, exemplified by the horrible Bombardier deconstruction, where Airbus A320neo sees no rival. A profitable civil aviation or luxury shipbuilding industry requires a nation to be the best in almost all industries – here, 'best' simply means competitive in the international market. The golden age of American manufacturing during the first Space Race is gone; world-renowned craftsmen and contractors cannot survive in the diet of American manufacturing economy when consumer demand is targeted, searched, and destroyed. The most industrialized ideology promotes the idea of a “bride industry,” where an industry is so in-demand that it can be sold to anyone universally. The new crown jewel becomes technology and service, arts and development that, in theory, can be sold universally with the highest mark-ups. If one rogue country decides to disobey the so-called rule-based international neoliberal trade system, the bride industry could be awarded to the arch-competitors of the rogue country. However, there was a critical flaw: without a robust industrial base, the development of arts and services stalled, and the catching-up industrialized nation could quickly develop inferior goods that, in times of sanction and competition, could be perfect replacements. For example, precision silicon manufacture, the crown jewel of this generation's technology and arts, is not irreplaceable. The inferior goods, 1 or 2 generations behind (namely nanometers times 4 or 16, while the current best is 2-6 nanometers), are still valid replacements or even competitors in times of sanction and high demand. For example, China mastered 28-nanometer silicones and they were used as perfect replacements during the 2021 automotive silicon shortage; the Chinese automotive industry did not slow down and wait for chips to arrive. The expansion of the rust belt tells a tale that the prized bride industries are nothing without manufacturing, and without domestic demand, manufacturing will crumble within a generation.
The Ascension of the Professional Managerial Class
The most profound moment for the PMC was when Wall Street realized one simple principle: forget manufacturing, production is less profitable than taxation. When the rent-seeking investment bankers realized the best way to generate profit was not by investing in growing small businesses and venture capitalism in high-tech, but by taxing the entire production chain, the age of de-growth began. The classical liberal or neoliberal prescription of a mutually beneficial relationship from trading and international development is gone. The old tale was that American capitalists lent money to Soviet Bureaucrats, so the Soviet government would have money to purchase equipment and machinery from the U.S., and pay back the loan in the long run through production. This way, the Soviet Union expanded its production capacity and the American capitalists made money through lending, selling equipment, and directing Soviet exports, aka production/supply chain integration. The fastest way of making money without years of waiting for the Soviet Union to industrialize was through taxation, where the Russian government had to pay a tax if they decided to further pursue trade or industrialization in the future. This was the case many years later when the Soviet Union collapsed and the Russians wished to upgrade their industry. Now, they had to pay a heavy levy to the West to 1) enter the world market; 2) use patented intellectual property; 3) enjoy the Western lifestyle after taking money home. The levy was so heavy that the Russian economy bloomed after exiting the West-led economy and entered a much smaller bilateral trading relationship with each third-world nation. The Russian Central Bank was running a contractionary monetary policy to prevent the economy from overheating and overinvesting in low-return, ephemeral sectors. If you wish to learn how the PMC constructed such a perfect World System, please read the book by Catherine Liu as I mentioned before, links will be provided below.
The PMC becomes the bureaucrats of the world this way, and the primary benefactors of the World System, similar to the British bureaucrats, public servants, civil servants, and secretaries of the first wave of globalization in the rear of the Victorian Age, aka the Belle Époque. The 4,000 or more civil servants ruled the world of British Hegemony, despite being the mere servants of the Royal Navy or the British Capitalist class.
What is the Professional Managerial Class? They possess all the knowledge to promote the service-based economy but none of the power to propel industries or factories. Doctors and nurses are not part of the PMC because they perform the key role of maintaining a healthy labor force, just like engineers maintain a well-oiled mill roller. The PMC maintains the psyche of the working class, as tamers of the sheep herd. Without doctors and nurses, the herd will die, but without the professional managers, the herd is wild. Before the PMC, the production process in factories was either self-managed by workers or by senior engineers. The unprofessional managers had the long-term interests of the factory as their top priority, and everything was fine, and still is fine in most industrialized nations that never entered the post-industrialized stage. This enters the realm of office politics, where investors need a loner without friends to execute the commands of the board of directors faithfully, without ever taking the position of a unionist. This is why the Ottoman Caliphs relied on orphaned slaves. Those slaves, being loners without family, derived their power only from their superiors. They were the most loyal, knowing they would lose everything if they went against the Caliph's will. They would transgress all morality and social norms for the happiness of the Caliph. The PMC adds no value to production, so their power does not derive from engineering or production expertise, only from the whims of the board of directors, thus making them perfect executors of their will. Production capacity in a factory will not fall if there were another draft and all managers were sent to fight a war overseas. Because of their uselessness, they are the most loyal and trustworthy. The engineers and unprofessional managers must go against all moral hazards – becoming union busters, popular sellouts, and traitors – if they act against their union's interests. In contrast, PMOs from Ivy League schools often lack parents with union jobs. Professional Managers align closely with Imperial Civil Servants who governed remote colonies in India or Africa, showing as little concern for the welfare of the “alien” native populations, a prime example of alienation.
The Ruling Caste
These definitions are improvised and loosely formed, akin to a roadside booze vendor scooping moonshines from a barrel with spoons.
The unmistakable ruling mafia of the Soviet Union was the Gosplan, also known as the State Planning Committee. It determined production, distribution, investment, and insurance (risk management, or hedging). Risk management at individual levels includes piggybanks for college and hurricane bunkers, at the state level it involves military defense of the nation and strategic stockpiles, and financial institutions use hedge funds. Those who benefited the least from Gosplan would return to the political arena of the Soviets to fight for their welfare. Stalin retained an iron grip over the Gosplan until his death, and later Politburos tried to undermine Gosplan after deposing Nikita Khrushchev. Politics are means to solve conflicts and disputes, and almost all conflicts and disputes in modern secular democracies stem from the economy, or money. The Gosplan example is a simplified, centralized machine controlling the economy of one state, namely the Soviet Union. This begs the question: who controls the economy of Western nations and when the people, dissatisfied with the economy, resolve the dispute?
The most straightforward answer for the ruling class in Western democracies is that the voters are the rulers. Ballot-casting citizens in one nation resolve all political issues through majority election. However, electoral politics are only secondary theatre, consumers in the food chain, subprime managers of wealth. The true power lies within the source of all economic planning in Western free-market democracies. In Jeremy Corbyn’s dream world, the united syndicates decide production and investment while the unions decide distribution, and the state government decides insurance through the National Health Service. In a pure privatized Hayek world, everything is determined by private actors, and conflicts among those private actors are resolved through the electoral process, for example, legislating, litigation, and tribunals. The political theaters are battle arenas for Titans, Jotuns, and demigods. In a corporatist world, the middlemen from permanent bureaucracies mediate the process and reach an acceptable solution between the robust unions and the captains of industries. Unionists would gain representation on the boards of directors and vote together on production and investment plans. Unlike in a co-op economy, only the machinists and engineers (or the senior employees) are represented on the boards of directors and in the investment decision-making process.
The blue-collar college graduates, engineers, skilled laborers, and traditional unionists have a different vision and are hardly welcomed and invited to the Professional Managerial Class's secret rites. If one public intellectual supports libertarianism and corporatism, they are highly likely to be white-collar intelligentsia and welcomed by the professional managerial class. If the set does not accept libertarianism and strives for co-op syndicalism, they are left-wing unionist intelligentsia. The PMC cannot enter the river of Syndicalism or Co-op Economy because they would lose the super-wage from the super-profit-earning corporations. The key difference between traditional intelligentsia and post-Reagan Voodoo economics (Economica Theology) is that the PMC earns super-wages far greater than traditional college professors (Cornel West is economically struggling by PMC standards, and his book deals, speech tours, and college wage are pathetic compared to the CEOs). The Yuppie (young upwardly mobile professional) dream is to one day become a PMC member and earn super-wages, and this false hope propels them to act against unionists and the working class. Barbara Ehrenreich declared the death of Yuppies when Ivy League graduates became increasingly unlikely to earn the super-wage, and the wealth gap within the PMC pioneers and old guards expanded exponentially.
Yuppies
Like Imperial Civil Servants of the past who hired masses of native secretaries supporting their imperial bureaucracies, most of the supporting work for the PMC is done by underpaid white-collar "interns" who fancy one day becoming a PMC themselves; they call themselves Yuppies. They do not earn a super-wage, and plumbers, electricians, and handymen are expensive for them in the most unaffordable cities like the District of Columbia, NYC, LA, and Austin. They are sustained by the false hope called the New American Dream, or the Yuppie dream, living their days debt-financed from long-term mortgage bonds rated on houses, automobiles, college tuitions, and cosmetic surgeries. Afghan and Indian intellectuals dream that one day their expertise will be recognized after serving their Imperial Civil Servants, and that they will be hired by London. They might have to face moral hazards and support the most brutal taxation and control policies under the assumption that their good service means the promotion of their employers, the civil servants, who will reward their loyalty. The Yuppies or college students will support their college professors, knowing that their professors are applying for a PMC job themselves; they can't spoil the super-wage for everyone. If you wish to learn more about the Yuppie and Occupy Wall Street (OWS), please consider reading the book "Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class" by Catherine Liu. A link to the book will be provided below. (The Nordic corporatism is a Two-State solution, where the unionists have one state that is perfectly self-sustaining and all-welcoming, and anyone can join, while the international capitals have their own state abroad, which is also perfectly self-sustaining but harder to join.)
Auxiliary
The Greater Professional Managerial Class includes the civil servants of the empire who directly take orders from above, their secretaries, and, in the rear, the top 10% aspirants/admirers/yes-men who are college professionals and their secretaries, i.e., students and fans of public intellectuals (they support the secretaries’ secretaries as secretaries). Like aristocracies of the past, high nobility would adopt lower nobility into their circle by hiring them to fill the royal courts; the Greater Professional Managerial Class contains not only the Professional Managers but also the intellectuals aspiring to become one. They are the most solid power base that can help the Professional Managerial Class seek real political power, a voting base, and free advertisers. Like blue-collar workers campaigning for Bernie Sanders door-to-door, the white-collar aspirants will campaign for their elite professional managers. (If you would like to know more, please read Liu’s book.) This form of personal attachment relationship is most secure, like squires of a knight knowing one day they will be knights.
American college scholars have become increasingly impoverished, as a result making their integrity very cheap to buy. Humanities and social science scholars are blessed with new money, though not even close to the super-wage professional managerial class make, but enough for them to finally have a middle-class Yuppie life from the 1990s. (*The rapid growth of the Professional Managerial Class in the golden ages of the post-Soviet Collapse and China joining the WTO 20 years ago led to many internal contradictions.)
It's so funny thinking about texts from 2000 or 3000 years ago, with parents worrying that their children will not enjoy the eternal bliss of the afterlife, contrasting with Liu’s PMC downward mobility pressure for the college-educated. Humanity has never changed; the time when the high middle class never thought their kids would ever have the same middle-class lifestyle in a social Darwinist economy is one of the core competitiveness of joining the bandwagon of the Professional Managerial Class. Once a new dogma is formed and a new normal created, there may be a chance for the next generation to not suffer the same fate of worrying about the downward mobility of the American middle class.
The prescribed solution of the Professional Managerial Class and girl boss projects became hollow in the 2020s, leading to college-educated adults in their late 30s abandoning the chosen candidate of the Professional Managerial Class. The chief traitor of the PMC was Tucker Carlson, a believer in meritocracy who in many of his monologues praised meritocracy and authority derived from a position of power, now finally joining forces with civil liberty advocates and pro-union intellectuals such as Glenn Greenwald. Tucker Carlson launched his media company after he was fired from the number 1 news program in America (arguably Joe Rogan is more popular, but Joe dives into more topics, just like Tucker interviews pop music stars). Speculations were that Tucker Carlson increasingly took sides in opposition to the Professional Managerial Class, such as the private control of insurance power, going to war against Russia in a Ukraine proxy, and the pharmaceutical-healthcare-insurance complex earning super profits from American chronic diseases, a normal production-distribution failure spilled out into insurance failures. Tucker Carlson proudly declares his exit from neoliberal school of economics and Reagan Voodoo Economics in favor of small business, small government, and non-interventionist positions, as the solar opposite of international corporations, socialism for the rich and the weaponization of institutions, and finally foreign wars and endless handouts to proxies of Neoliberalism.
Is this the beginning of the end, or the end of the first chapter of the professional managerial class? The political theology of internalizing economic struggles into moral failures and objectifying the homeless into beasts of gentrification happens right under most people's noses. When the old towns of a city need gentrification but the land price is expensive, the city can ignore the homeless encampments and open-air illicit trades. The rent in those buildings plummets while the city tax increases every year, so the building owners are forced to sell their underperforming assets. PMC media will condemn the residents for not being loving enough to the homeless and immigrants, accusing them of being racist. The real estate assets are the last valuable assets middle-class Americans retained long after the last booming age before Reaganomics. Now, they must leave their ancestral homes. Ten years later, the South Park-style new downtown is reborn. When California is in a perfect financial standing to build a new affordable public housing city on the vast public lands owned either by the State or the Federal government, something done by other states before, California refused. They prefer to hide them in luxury motels when Biden and his buddies host international conferences in California, a temporary solution that benefits nobody.
Max Weber summarized that puritan virtue helped their triumph over the libertine hedonism of the French. As Americans increasingly turn inwards for liberation, and fool themselves by calling escapism from reality a liberation from material chains: that man born free is everywhere in chains and only in heaven can he be free, and there is one internal heaven within the heart of every man; a heaven they can enjoy anywhere anytime if they wish. It is just another level of Economica Theology scam, trying to water down inequality with illusion and mirage like The Little Match Girl. Augmented reality brings infinite pleasure at your fingertips; it is either a magic match or a smoke-filled joint. However, such ideology is not the real eastern philosophy the PMC claims to be. Eastern liberals believe liberation only comes from conquering illusion and hedonistic desire, that a wise man can conquer thousands of lifetimes of illusions of hedonistic enjoyment, only after that they are truly free. The wise man, free within and without: without, his might can endure the tyrant’s sword; within, he conquers all the demons chattering in his ears. For the PMC, all they want is to play Pokémon Go with Hillary and watch AOC’s Twitch streams.
Monotheism of the Internet
The most blessed invention of the past 30 years is the 4th generation mobile internet; it brings every working American into the age of self-expression and mutual discovery. The voiceless and silent majority can finally express their opinions to each other, across class, geographical boundaries, and education levels. The true liberation of the public forum finally arrives; it is no longer the newspeople reading scripts handed down from a mysterious backroom. Then the Professional Managerial Class said it was too much. Even before the mobile internet’s true blossom, back in early 2015, there were cabals of media sector PMC aspirants trying to practice the ability to censor the internet using online media. The small microphones of forums and Twitter were no match for the first-page search engine news outlets.
Now the first and final step of canceling someone no longer limits to firing from their job; it also includes the termination of social media accounts and bank accounts, and in this day, nobody can start another career without a credit card, bank account, and a social media account. Opposition accounts being mass-banned by social media companies, those voiceless silent small people can express their opinions nowhere and appeal their bans to nobody. The bans are purposefully vague, so the internet users must learn the End User License Agreement, or learn to self-censor and shut-up. The former, EULA can be changed willy-nilly, and the silence is the most beautify chime for the PMC. (In vagueness it derives authority)
Those people are banned on all social media platforms and they return to their former voiceless status, cannot speak for themselves and must rely on political representation to resolve their disputes in distribution and insurance aspects of their lives. Everything can return to the old normal again. Public intellectuals subscribe to the PMC school of political economy, so the best will be hired and become a news anchor, making millions and enjoying a comfy upper-middle-class lifestyle like Rachel Maddow, who in her semi-retirement hosts a minimum number of shows while making millions. Is she uniquely smart and mythological, and possesses a soft, low voice and charming talking style like Tucker Carlson, that her talent is irreplaceable? If so, the most profitable approach would be to let her host shows 7 days a week and 200 episodes each year for the cable companies. It’s her ideological zeal and willingness to transgress all morality, like honesty and patriotism, truthfulness and the love for science, that gave her the unique position of propagandist-in-chief, arch-used-car-saleslady for the Neoliberal Political Economy philosophy that got her the job. Her “retirement” super-wage are merely fees to keep her from turning into Tucker Carlson, going rogue, and starting her own media company, banking on the cult of personality she cultivated for 20 years in the News industry, and turning against other Professional Managerial Class Imperial Civil Servants.
Slaves of Virtue Burden
In the remote and forbidding peaks of Himalayas, the concept of Karma was deeply entrenched in the beliefs of the ruling Monk Kings (Anshokas). These monarchs, whose actions often contradicted the teachings of Buddha, particularly in their cruel and exploitative treatment of their subjects, sought to mitigate the negative Karma arising from such practices. To this end, they devised an innovative method for accruing positive Karma, diverging from the traditional Buddhist practices of meditation, kind treatment of others, and reverence for life. Their approach involved the use of "slaves of burden," individuals compelled to perform virtuous acts that generated good Karma. This concept transformed Karma into a sort of currency, capable of being accumulated, traded, and stored. The slaves, rich in good Karma, were believed to be able to transfer this spiritual wealth to their masters, thus absolving the lords from the repercussions of their actions and sparing them from hellish punishments in the Afterlife. Conversely, this system also meant that the slaves, laden with good Karma, were spared from being sacrificed in ritual practices. A Win-Win, if everyone ignores the cruelty of slavery and human sacrifice.
In a parallel concept, the modern "Homo Economica's burden" implies that the collective wrongdoings of oppression, theft, deceit, and dishonesty are borne by all humanity indiscriminately (transcends all wealth, education, and might⚔⚔). This notion has been adopted by the Professional-Managerial Class (PMC), who, despite transgressing moral boundaries, claim to have acquired new virtues. By amassing these virtues, they believe they can negate their accumulated negative Karma. In this system, the oppressed poor and impoverished Americans, who face accusations of xenophobia and transphobia, are seen as the contemporary "slaves of burden." By punishing these so-called "evilest creatures of the universe," the PMC contends that they accumulate significant positive Karma. This belief holds that no matter the extent of their unethical experiments or kleptocracy, the positive Karma earned through the punishment of these marginalized groups (rustbelt Americans and homeless Californians) will secure the PMC a place in heaven and bestow upon them eternal blessings, mirroring the practices of the Tibetan Monk Kings. The Negative Karma, can be numerically accounted for through careful examination of the super-profits (integral super-wage).
Meanwhile, the working-class Americans are expected to atone for their perceived faults, including transphobia, homophobia, xenophobia, and other phobias*, or else continue to endure the judgment and condemnation of the Professional Managerial Class elites from Washington D.C., especially the auxiliary secretaries who subject to all exploitation the same way most working Americans must endure every day. However, even the 5th level secretaries of the PMC are more virtuous than an average middle-aged single-dad janitor working in the D.C. subway.
If you've found my perspectives interesting, you might also appreciate the insights in Catherine Liu's book. While my comments offer a distinct interpretation, her work provides a comprehensive exploration of the Professional Managerial Class concept. For a more in-depth understanding, I recommend reading her book. As a thank you for your engagement with my posts, I invite you to subscribe to my mailing list. Having already received a 5,500-word introduction for free, please comment and share if you find it interesting.
Links to Catherine Liu's Book
Liu, C. (2020). Virtue Hoarders: The Case against the Professional Managerial Class (Forerunners: Ideas First). University of Minnesota Press. (ISBN: 1517912253) - A Forerunners: Ideas First Books Collection